Ryan Hollis vs. Matt Schnell “Controversial Decision” at Legacy FC 14

Matt Schnell from MTV’s “Caged” and Ryan Hollis battled it out last night for three enduring rounds at Legacy FC 14 in Houston Texas. Two judges scored the match 29 to 28 in favor of Schnell giving him the split decision victory. The Houston Arena Theatre erupted in disbelief. Schnell looked to lose most of the striking exchanges on their feet, frustrating him and forcing him to try his skills on the ground.

This would be the case in every round in fact. The only problem was that every time he put Hollis on the mat, he did no damage. Hollis on the other hand was firing hard elbows, punches, and attempted many submissions off of his back.

After the fight one of the judges told MMAValor, “I actually scored the fight in favor of Hollis. Sure Schnell Had a takedown over here and a takedown over there (pointing in the direction) but he didn’t do any damage to Hollis once he got him down. I actually understand jui jitsu and scored in favor of Hollis for submission attempts and damage he was doing off of his back”.

There needs to be more judges like this one at Legacy FC 14. And I’m sure most of Houston would’ve agreed with me last night.

We often hear the phrase, “You can’t leave it in the hands of the judges”, but it’s safe to say at least half of all Mixed Martial Arts matches end in decision. Sure some close fights are hard to judge, but some are clear-cut enough for even most fans to judge correctly, yet professional judges seem to still be missing the mark. Maybe if every judge understood the dynamics of every martial art that is practiced in MMA, like the judge we spoke to last night, we would see a lot more fights judged fairly.

For being both of these fighters pro debut, they put on an awesome show at Friday’s Legacy FC 14 and we can only hope to see them go at it again in the near future.